Monday, 15 August 2011

A to Z of African official IP websites: no. 9: Central African Republic

In this, the ninth in Afro-IP's A-to-Z series of visits to the official IP websites of African states, Kingsley Egbuonu takes to the tropics and visits the Central African Republic. This country is difficult to get to by sea, since it's land-locked. It's even more difficult to get to by internet, though, if you're involved in IP. As Kingsley reports:

"Overview

The Agreement which led to the creation of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) was adopted on March 2, 1977 at Bangui, Central African Republic. Among other IP-related Treaties, she is also a contracting party to the TRIPS Agreement and one of OAPI’s member states.

Copyright Office

The Central African Copyright Office (Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture) is the competent office responsible for Copyright and related rights.

There is currently no website for this office.

Industrial Property Office

The National Industrial Property Service, Directorate of Industrial Development and Handicraft (Ministry of Industry, Commerce, SME-SMI) is the competent office responsible for the administration of Intellectual Property.